This building block concerns bring tangible benefits of the project to direct beneficiaries. The household basic needs like energy saving stoves, rain water harvesting gadgets and protected springs were meant to reduce access and amount of pressure to the wetland and its resources. The alternative income generating items like fish cages and fish ponds, bee-hives were meant to support individuals, households, groups or associations to enhance their economic livelihoods, so as to shift from wetland resource extraction for commercial purposes to extraction for domestic use only.

This involved a process of identifying/selecting direct beneficiaries, in the form of individuals, households, groups or associations which was done with the help of local council leaders, and attendance lists of members attending several sensitization and education workshops. Local council leaders were helpful mostly in identifying the vulnerable or marginalized households like the handicapped, elderly, poor youth and women.

Field missions associated with IMET only take a few days to conduct. It is therefore important that the project team be adept at using the IMET prior to the field mission. Building the technical capacity of the team will enable smooth implementation and reduce the risk of overrunning timelines. In our project, we underwent a series of capacity development sessions. During project design, we underwent several online training sessions organised by BIOPAMA. These meetings provided the knowledge and skills needed to conduct the data collection and analysis within a short period of time. Equally important is ensuring that the computers to be used  are up to date in terms of specifications. Thus, capacity development includes technical and logistical aspects of the project.

Installations such as electricity provision, servers and computers are necessary to rollout such technological solutions. In the current project, 35 ranger outposts were equipped with solar chargers and inverters to keep the mobile phones charged; a server and air conditioner were purchased and installed at a central server room; and two computers were purchased to support data processing and configuration of mobile devices. Further, the servers and computers were configured to facilitate creation of SMART databases (desktop and connect) and enable the rollout of data collection using SMART Mobile, submission through the server, processing at the desktop and sharing over SMART Connect.

Involving people directly in the reef restoration effort and being actively part of the solution is crucial for its overall success. With the help of local dive operators, Reef Renewal Bonaire trains volunteers that participate side-by-side with the staff in day-to-day field activities. Trained divers are pivotal in sharing RRFB’s vision with the wider community and becoming natural ambassadors for reef preservation and restoration. 

Educational programs and tailored experiences are organized for schools, youth groups, local businesses, and authorities aimed at involving them in different levels of restoration efforts, while allowing them to see the results of the project, firsthand. 

Furthermore, located in shallow water, the nurseries and outplanting sites are easily accessible by divers, snorkelers, and surface explorers, becoming an attraction not only to visitors of the islands but also to local community groups.

• This was meant to give hands on knowledge to the beneficiaries in accordance with the activities engaged in. The main targets were those who would benefit from alternative sources of income. already existing practitioners in aquaculture, apiary etc and the new ones alike were taken into consideration. Individuals, homesteads, member groups/associations were trained in categories; Fisheries, Apiary development, and Crop growers. different training sessions were organised for each category.
• This helped members to know what awaits them, how to plan and manage it sustainably to improve their livelihoods.
• Education and training was a continuous process throughout the implementation cycle of the project.

The purpose was to bring together all the affected persons, the potential beneficiaries and all the concerned community members, partners to introduce to them the project idea, its anticipated impacts both negative and positive, whilst explaining the responsibility of the community members their roles during the implementation. This was also meant to get the different views and ideas of members to aid the successful implementation of the activities of the project. It was also meant to share with the community members the relevant knowledge required to utilize the wetland and its various resources/products  sustainably in order to live in harmony with nature. The engagement involved teaching the members the need for their participation for each step during implementation. Different individuals or households were engaged in different activities in the wetland. This sensitisation meeting further explored how each activity in the wetland can be carried out to minimize negative impacts and maximize positive impacts both economically and environmentally. A call for a community meeting was announced on radio, church gatherings and other media. This was a continuous activity throughout the implementation of the project.

Female rangers play an important part in the conservation of black rhinos in the Kunene and Erongo regions of Namibia. They are equally willing and able to conduct patrols and are fully supported by the custodian conservancies.

After staying afloat and fulfilling government health requirements, the island was reopened earlier than expected to ecotourism. Staff were trained by health officials on maintaining safety during visits, and signage directing visitors to observe hygiene and other protocols put up. The entire team on the island was vaccinated. As part of a digitization process, Nature Seychelles provided an online payment option for ease of ticketing. Tour operators were contacted and apprised of the health authority's requirements before the reopening.

This helps to orient and introduce the project idea to the relevant officials working with the district/administrators directly or indirectly involved in the project. This was meant to avoid any future audit queries, conflicts arising from implementation of activities. These involved local councilors, local council or village chairmen, district political leaders, environmental police, internal security organizations, district administration officials, district technical staff from different departments(finance, procurement, natural resources, community development, engineering etc). This included other private stakeholders doing more or less similar projects, lodge owners etc. The engagement involved an organized project launch activity or ground breaking ceremony to educate them on the project anticipated activities, locations/areas, budget, beneficiaries, potential risks and the anticipated outcome, plus seeking their input and support for the success of the project. This also involved field visits to access the situation on ground before implementation.

Recruiting personnel with the desired skills, attributes and a willingness to undergo desierd training. This included a Project Manager for the SLNT PSEPA Programme to provide leadership and manage implementation of project activities; and a team of rangers to conduct the monitoring and surveillance activities. These resources supported delivery of the following outputs:

Output 1 - Increased surveillance of targeted areas within the PSEPA to address illegal activities and species conservation

Activity Implemented 1.1 - PSEPA Ranger recruitment

Activity Implemented 1.2 - Surveillance of key PSEPA resources

Activity Implemented 1.5 - Recruitment of Conservation Officer 

Output 2 - Improved Species monitoring programmes

Activity Implemented 2.1 – Offshore islands monitoring

Activity Implemented 2.2 – Wildlife survey

Activity Implemented 2.3 – Equipment purchase turtle monitoring

Activity Implemented 2.4 – Turtle monitoring training

Activity Implemented 2.5 – Turtle monitoring

The rationale for this building block is such that the activities and outputs presented above assisted with the generation of data required to inform future programming and lay the foundation for an established conservation programme at the SLNT southern office responsible for the PSEPA.